Hillgartner Family History: Reno

John Reno, the World's First Train Robber

John Reno was one of four brothers, the sons of Wilkerson Reno, who became known as the Reno Gang. Their father was an illiterate but shrewd farmer who moved to Indiana from Kentucky before the Civil War. Their mother, Julia Ann, was "highly educated". John was known for his bloodthirsty temper and commanded the Reno Gang's early operations. His brother Frank was later characterized as a courageous natural leader, yet like most of his siblings he was totally crooked. Simeon and William gladly joined their older brothers in raising hell. Sister Laura Ellen also had a wild reputation. Clinton, the fifth brother, became known as "Honest Clint", since he was the only son who chose not to ride with the gang.

The Renos' first scam started with the Civil War. Federal recruiting officers paid a cash bounty to each man who signed up for military service. So the Reno brothers became notorious bounty jumpers.
Traveling around the state of Indiana, the Renos joined up again and again. A day or so after pocketing the cash and reporting for duty, the boys would disappear only to find another unsuspecting federal agent looking for volunteers in another county..

Towards the close of the war, the crooked Renos began buying sections of land around the small town of Rockford, just north of Seymour. A mysterious series of fires afflicted the community until only the Renos and a loose collection of horse thieves, safecrackers, gamblers and the odd counterfeiter were left.

The Reno brothers made their headquarters in a downtown hotel known as the Rader House, located not far from the railroad. From there, they orchestrated robberies of county treasuries across the Midwest. They added to the stolen money with phony bills and the valuables of any unwary traveler who chose the Rader House for a night's lodging.

The members of the gang were arrested countless times, but on each occasion the Renos were released without reprisal. The brothers bragged of their political clout in and around Seymour; those officials who couldn't be bribed were bullied and terrorized into silence.

Mugging, counterfeiting and robbing county treasuries provided a handsome income for the gang, but it wasn't enough for John. On the night of October 6th, 1866, he, Simeon, and Frank Sparks quietly hid aboard an east-bound express. As the train gathered speed, the three masked men made their way to the express car. overpowered the messenger, and scooped up $12,000 in loot. One yanked on the pull cord, signaling the engineer to stop the train. As the train slowed, the bandits jumped into the darkness but not before pulling the cord a second time giving the engineer the "all clear." The first recorded train robbery was over in a matter of minutes.

The Adams Express Company quickly sent two agents to Seymour. They found a witness who saw the Renos aboard the train that night. Warrants for the three were quickly written up, but no local lawman dared serve the papers. So the agents tricked John and Simeon onto a waiting train where they were subdued and taken to the Jackson County jail in Brownstown. An indictment hearing set bond at $13,000. The gang posted it easily.

Loose again, the Renos returned to plundering the surrounding area. Meanwhile the gang's exploits did not go unnoticed. John's reputation spread up and down the Ohio valley. No doubt it played a part in inducing young Salome Jane to be naughty.

Then, on September 28th, 1867, Walker Hammond and Micheal Colleran decided that what worked once for the Renos ought to work again. The world's second train robbery was pulled in the exact same manner as the first. The Renos responded by capturing Hammond themselves. After beating him to a pulp, they handed him over to local authorities, keeping the money of course.

In December, John Reno decided to head west for Missouri. The gang cracked two safes and removed $22,065 from the Daviess County treasury. The Renos gleefully hitched a train ride back to Indianapolis where they split up the loot and parted ways. No one realized that the Adams Company had brought in the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency to stop their losses, and that Allan Pinkerton himself was on their trail.

A week or so after the Daviess County robbery, Pinkerton got a tip that John Reno would be meeting a friend coming into the Seymour railroad station -- alone. Pinkerton quickly commandeered a special train, and waited two days until John showed up at the platform. On Pinkerton's signal, the bogus train was fired up and entered the station. As it slowed for the stop, six Pinkerton men leapt from the train and dragged the kicking and screaming Reno back on board, where John was slapped in irons. The special train headed for Missouri, not stopping again until it was safely out of Reno territory.

How did Pinkerton know that John Reno would be alone and off his guard? The scheme to kidnap the bandit obviously depended on it. A single bodyguard, firing from any sort of cover, would have foiled the snatch. Was John there to meet a lady friend? Salome Jane's delicate condition certainly would have posed no threat.

At any rate, while Reno influence worked wonders in Seymour, it had no coattails in Missouri. Here, John was facing 50 years of hard labor -- if he survived the mobs outside the courthouse that wanted their money back. He fully expected Frank and the rest of the gang to bust him out. But a few days after his arrival at Jefferson City Prison, he received a letter from Frank stating that he was having trouble "getting the materials ready."

So John was left to cool his heels. Frank Reno now led the gang on another punishing raid through the Midwest, which climaxed on the evening of May 22nd, 1868. They hit a train enroute to the Federal Treasury in Washington with a mind-numbing $96,000.00 in gold and government bonds on board!
This third train robbery created a national stir. William and Simeon went to cover in the seedy parts of Indianapolis, while Frank and his friend Charlie Anderson took off for Canada. But the Pinkertons tracked them all down, one by one.

Finally in the early winter of 1868, Frank Reno and Charlie Anderson joined William and Simeon Reno in the strongly fortified New Albany jail to await trial. Fearing the Renos would be released, The Jackson County Vigilante Committee sent a call for action through the county.

In the cold pre-dawn hours of December 12th, 1868, 56 hooded men gathered outside the New Albany jail. Wounding the sheriff, they forced their way into the fortified structure. Cell Guard Tom Matthews met the assailants at the cell block door and yelled he would shoot anyone who tried to enter. One of the hooded men shouted back that they had five nooses, four for the outlaws and one for the jailer if he didn't let them in the easy way. Matthews opened the door.

As first Frank, then Simeon and young William went up, some of the hooded men swung on the ropes to add their weight and quicken the job. Frank Reno's last words were reportably "Lord, have mercy on my soul."

Twenty years later, John Reno was released from prison, and returned to Indiana in 1886. But he hadn't reformed; he was soon convicted of counterfeiting and sentenced to three years in the Northern Indiana prison. He died in Rockford in 1895.

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